by Ben Summerton
Preparation time: 10mins
Cooking time: Half and Hour
Ingredients, unless indicated, can be bought locally, from wherever.
Ingredients
Good dash of olive oil
1 onion, fine chop (for the soup)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbs tomato paste
1 can chopped or whole tomatoes
1/4 cup korma paste (or mix some curry powder with some yoghurt to make something aromatic) ilovecookie, Itaewon Foreign Food
1.25L (5 cups) vegetable (chicken will do though) stock
420g (2 cups) red lentils, rinsed ilovecookie, Itaewon Foreign Food
Spinach, Chinese Cabbage...anything leafy that wilts basically
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper Garnish
2 large onions, halved then sliced into fine rings
handful of fresh cumin seeds
handful of freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
Yoghurt
This is a recipe that was inspired by a book about three sisters who loved cooking. That's all I remember about it, except they talk about this soup in one of the opening chapters. I never did finish that book though...
Anyway, I used to make this on a camp oven over an open fire in my backyard in outback South Australia. A good mug of this with some beers, music and mates on a cold desert night in front of the fire was what made living in the desert so memorable. This recipe is the slightly domesticated version (complete with a less smoky flavour), but in essence is the same thing.More recently I made it for our friends the Tim and Aysem/Steve and Miriam...and for Miri to request this was a compliment that made it worth posting this recipe for all you Discoverers of Seoul.
Method:
Heat your oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the finely diced onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened. Add the curry paste and stir it in, then add the stock, tomato and lentils. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer for about half an hour. Basically, you want it smelling amazing and the lentils to be soft (start checking and tasting at the 20 minute mark). Don't forget to keep checking your seasoning and adjust (especially the pepper).
Getting ready to serve
At this point you may want to blend the soup for the smoother consistency, or leave a little rustic. If the soup is a little thick, just add small amounts of water to get the consistency you want.
...and adding garnish:
To finish up, you want a large frying pan cranked up to a high heat. Add another good dash of olive oil, then fry your onions until seriously crispy and dark in colour. Remove from heat and immediately add the fresh coriander seeds.
Divide between bowls. Top with a generous spoon of the onion/cumin mix as well as coriander and a wop of yoghurt. Serve with bread too if going all out ;)
Red Lentil Soup with Burnt Onion and Cumin Seeds
by Ben SummertonPreparation time: 10mins
Cooking time: Half and Hour
Ingredients, unless indicated, can be bought locally, from wherever.
Ingredients
Good dash of olive oil
1 onion, fine chop (for the soup)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbs tomato paste
1 can chopped or whole tomatoes
1/4 cup korma paste (or mix some curry powder with some yoghurt to make something aromatic) ilovecookie, Itaewon Foreign Food
1.25L (5 cups) vegetable (chicken will do though) stock
420g (2 cups) red lentils, rinsed ilovecookie, Itaewon Foreign Food
Spinach, Chinese Cabbage...anything leafy that wilts basically
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Garnish
2 large onions, halved then sliced into fine rings
handful of fresh cumin seeds
handful of freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
Yoghurt
This is a recipe that was inspired by a book about three sisters who loved cooking. That's all I remember about it, except they talk about this soup in one of the opening chapters. I never did finish that book though...
Anyway, I used to make this on a camp oven over an open fire in my backyard in outback South Australia. A good mug of this with some beers, music and mates on a cold desert night in front of the fire was what made living in the desert so memorable. This recipe is the slightly domesticated version (complete with a less smoky flavour), but in essence is the same thing.More recently I made it for our friends the Tim and Aysem/Steve and Miriam...and for Miri to request this was a compliment that made it worth posting this recipe for all you Discoverers of Seoul.
Method:
Heat your oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the finely diced onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened. Add the curry paste and stir it in, then add the stock, tomato and lentils. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer for about half an hour. Basically, you want it smelling amazing and the lentils to be soft (start checking and tasting at the 20 minute mark). Don't forget to keep checking your seasoning and adjust (especially the pepper).
Getting ready to serve
At this point you may want to blend the soup for the smoother consistency, or leave a little rustic. If the soup is a little thick, just add small amounts of water to get the consistency you want.
...and adding garnish:
To finish up, you want a large frying pan cranked up to a high heat. Add another good dash of olive oil, then fry your onions until seriously crispy and dark in colour. Remove from heat and immediately add the fresh coriander seeds.
Divide between bowls. Top with a generous spoon of the onion/cumin mix as well as coriander and a wop of yoghurt. Serve with bread too if going all out ;)